As the map of Asia changes, so do the players in the enduring story of an independent English governess who westernizes the 19th- century Siamese court. In the steps of the first "Mrs. Anna," Irene Dunne in the nonmusical `Anna and the King of Siam' came Gertrude Lawrence and Deborah Kerr in Rodgers and Hammerstein's `The King and I.'
Now comes the newest inheritor of Anna Leonowens' huge hooped skirt, Hayley Mills.
`Hayley Mills?'
Why not? Do the math. It has been 36 years since Mills played the twin daughters of the late Brian Keith in `The Parent Trap.' When the newest national tour of `The King and I' arrives at the Music Hall in Fair Park on Tuesday, Mills will be singing `Getting to Know You' to the Siamese kiddos and `Shall We Dance' to the chauvinistic monarch.
The actress confesses to be "somewhat daunted" by the travel and performance regimen, but she is adapting to the road with characteristic British fortitude.
"I've now completed three months, and I'm still walking and talking," she said, speaking from her Seattle hotel suite during the Northwest leg of the tour. "I'm still in remarkably good shape, considering. It's a very heavy show."
Does she work out?
"No!" she replied with astonishment in her voice. "The `show' is a workout. It's three hours long, and I'm on stage the whole time. Over the weekend, with two shows on Saturday and two on Sunday, is about all I can manage. I'm enjoying it enormously. That is the key to whatever you're doing, I guess."
After an impressive list of hit films as a juvenile and teen player, Hayley Mills is, for all purposes, a stage actress. Her first play, at age 22, was Chekhov's `The Three Sisters.' Talk about daunting.
"To vary it, I did `Peter Pan' after that," she said, laughing.
"I don't have any great yen for movies anymore. I've done that. It was a fortunate, happy time in my life. I had wonderful parts to play in some very good movies. It was an enormous amount of fun. The theater has so much more to offer someone like myself, someone my age."
Mills is aware that it is her screen reputation that makes her a lure as a stage star.
"I think it's lovely," she said. "What amazes me is how good people's memories are. I suppose that's helped a lot by the fact that the films I did for Disney were available on video within the last 10 years. People who were children in the '60s have been able to introduce their own children to these films. I was very lucky to be in some very good movies."
While in Seattle, Mills learned of the Southern Baptist boycott of Disney products -- presumably including her movies.
"How very sad that a religious group should be so intolerant," she said. "It's very un-Christian and very regrettable."
Mills speaks in the cultured English accent of her character in `The King and I.' But she takes professional pride in altering her speech pattern to fit the role. One of her favorite roles is Sally, the Missouri spinster in `Talley's Folly.' When she did the play with Jonathan Pryce in London, she wouldn't settle for a standard American accent.
"I did a Missouri accent, of course," she said. "So did Jonathan."
"I used a voice coach, and I had a tape," she said. "I listened to it until I was absolutely cross-eyed. I loved it. I love having an accent I can grab hold of."
`The King and I' plays through July 28 at the Music Hall in Fair Park. Curtain times are 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $7-$50. Call Metro (972) 647-5700.